Charlie Tims, State Representative to the State House of Representatives, introduced legislation today (02-18-1998) that, if passed, would tax words! That's right, tax words! Specifically, words reporting crime. The Ways and Means Committee Chairman brought the legislation up for a committee vote, which could allow it to be released to the floor for a final vote before going to the governor for his signature.

Republicans immediately challenged the legislation as foolish and an infringement on the First Amendment. How do you put a value on a news story? In what way do you determine the number of people, dropping quarters into the newspaper vending machine, who buy the paper for a particular story?

I guess if you're a Democrat and don't want folks to know about the level of crime or want to see the number of stories diminish so folks have a false perception that crime has declined, this would be the way to do it.

Democrat philosophy seems to be: Don't fight crime, fight knowledge! Lets not fix the crime problem, let's just make it unprofitable to report it. Folks will have a warm cozy feeling because they aren't hearing as much about crime as they did before. People feel better and reelect the politicians sitting there because things seem so good. What a deal. The Democrat majority in the State House wins, criminals win, and the citizens of Georgia lose.

If anything demonstrates the depths to which the Democrat Party in Georgia has fallen this is it. I wonder if we will see a Democrat introduce an amendment to tax unapproved thoughts!